Local Assemblies to Remain Subservient

Constitutional changes granting more powers to local government in Kazakstan are a smokescreen given that the president will still be able to dissolve them at any moment, say NBCentralAsia commentators.



On May 29, four legal amendments were submitted for parliamentary review to bring national legislation into line with the constitutional changes adopted last week. These changes, adopted on May 22, give the local elected councils or maslikhats at provincial and municipal the level the right to approve presidential nominations for the post of akim, the provincial governor or town mayor.



One change is that a vote of no-confidence in the president’s choice of akim now requires only one-fifth of the maslikhat’s members instead of the two-thirds majority previously required. In addition, councillors will now sit on maslikhats for five instead of four years.



Presenting the amendments to parliament on May 16, President Nursultan Nazarbaev said the changes would greatly increase the political role played by maslikhats, and would form a crucial part of Kazakstan’s drive for democracy.



NBCentralAsia analysts say the changes will be ineffective because the president still has absolute control over local government. As political scientist Aydos Sarimov explained, the amendments handing more power to maslikhats were cancelled out by other changes allowing the president to dissolve them whenever he likes.



Previously, only the Senate or upper house of parliament had that right. The Senate is composed of 32 delegates elected from Kazakstan’s 14 regions and the cities of Astana and Almaty, and another seven who are appointed by the president.



According to political scientist Nikolai Kuzmin, the changes create the preconditions for stronger elected assemblies, but fail to provide them with greater autonomy from the prevailing political line at the centre of government.



“The local government system… has effectively merged with central government; in other words it doesn’t exist as an independent structure but only as a kind of projection of central authority,” said Kuzmin.



Sarimov says the other change, extending local councillors’ term in office, will make them complacent and more likely to string out their work. “Their term should instead be reduced to two to three years, in line with standard international practice,” he said. “Electing people for short spells in office would make the maslikhats more efficient.”



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)